Fitting the pieces: Men’s basketball drops first two games of Joe Jones era

For the first time since it walked off the court after a loss to the University of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, a roughly eight month period that included a coaching change and the graduation of the program’s second all-time leading scorer, the Boston University men’s basketball team returned to action.

Though the Terriers (0-2) returned to the court, their first win of the season will have to wait, as BU dropped its first two games of the season, losing to rival Northeastern University 82-74 in overtime in the season opener Friday and falling to the University of Texas 82-46 on the road Sunday.

First-year head coach Joe Jones feels that while his team still hasn’t picked up an elusive first win, that the Terriers are making all the proper steps toward coming together as a team.

“I feel like we’re a talented team, I feel like we’re a team that has some really good pieces and we have to do a better job collectively of fitting together,” Jones said. “I think guys are still getting comfortable in game situations with each other and that’s going to take a little time with the new system and new style of play that we’ve employed.”

BU’s first step toward making it back to the NCAA Tournament began Friday night against a familiar opponent, the Northeastern Huskies (1-1), before a capacity crowd of 1,875, the largest in Case Gymnasium history.

For two programs that experienced so much change and turnover in the offseason, the game, by most accounts, carried a strong sense of déjà vu to the 2010 season opener, a game in which Northeastern won 66-64.

With both teams opening the season against one another, the Terriers and Huskies played a largely back-and-forth game defined by runs from both teams in a contest that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer.

And, ultimately, the result proved to be the same, as Northeastern was able to make it back to Huntington Avenue with an overtime win.

“Just another boring BU-Northeastern game, right?” Northeastern coach Bill Coen quipped after the game.

Though the game ended up having to be decided in extra time, with five minutes remaining, it appeared the only thing in doubt would be the Huskies’ final margin of victory as they led 62-51 after a pair of free throws from forward Kauri Black.

However, from there, BU scored 12 unanswered points, a run that climaxed with a 3-pointer from senior guard Matt Griffin that gave the Terriers a 63-62 lead with just more than a minute left.
After a pair of free throws from guard Joel Smith gave Northeastern a 64-63 lead on the next possession, BU had a chance to regain the lead, but senior guard Darryl Partin only made one of two free throws and the game went into overtime.

“I think we just fought hard, kept our heads up and had a good attitude,” freshman point guard D.J. Irving said of the comeback. “We were in that position last year so it was nothing new to us.”

Once overtime began, however, much of the Terriers’ momentum quickly withered away as the period dragged on.

Nursing a 72-69 lead with 2:16 remaining after an Irving lay-up, Northeastern went on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes, with an alley-oop dunk from forward Kashief Edwards with 15 seconds remaining serving as the proverbial exclamation point for the Huskies’ victory.

The Terriers’ offense played out as many expected going into the season, with Partin leading all scorers with 25 points and Irving contributing 17.

In a game defined by close calls and meticulous planning, small mistakes such as missed free throws and rebounds proved to be the difference between a win and a loss.

“It was great. It was a great game in terms of being an early game of the season against a terrific opponent,” Jones said. “Like I said, if we make some plays down the stretch, it’s a completely different story.”

Faced with a Saturday morning flight after their season-opening thriller, the Terriers had to quickly recuperate against a Texas team that featured one of the highest-ranked recruiting classes in the country.

This litany of factors was one that BU experienced the full effect of, as it could not recover from a fast second half start from Texas en route to an 82-46 drubbing from the host Longhorns.

Trailing Texas by 31-21 at halftime after having played it close for much of the first half, BU quickly fell victim to a 14-7 run from the Longhorns in the first four minutes of the second half, a run that extended the lead to 45-28.

From there, Texas went on a 12-1 run to increase the Terriers’ deficit to 57-29 with 12:17 remaining, turning what was a closely-contested game into a blowout.

For a BU team that committed 24 turnovers in the game and shot just 29.8 percent from the field, that combination of debilitating factors proved to be too much, and midway through the second half, the ever-growing deficit had a lingering effect on the BU players.

“I thought in that area, for a period of time when we didn’t come out in the second half and play as well as I thought we would, the score really affected us and we hung our heads a little bit at that time,” Jones said.

Additionally, BU struggled from 3-point range, shooting 16 percent from beyond the arc. In contrast, Texas, led by guard J’Covan Brown’s career-high 28 points, shot 46.3 percent, including 42.3 percent on 3-pointers.

With their next game not scheduled until Sunday at Cornell University, the Terriers will get some much-needed rest and time to get things together before trying again to get their first win of the season and of Jones’ tenure at BU.

“We’ve just got to not so much focus on Cornell. I think it’s more about us. We have to put more time into us and getting better,” Jones said. “I think just playing together, having a week of practice, getting better in practice every day, stressing the way we want to play offensively, continuing to get better defensively, continuing to take care of the basketball and rebounding the ball – those are things we have to keep working at.”